Bye 2010, Welcome 2011

Just few more hours for Welcoming New Year and I'm so excited.
This year taught me lot many things and hope the coming year also brings more happiness and learnings in life.This is my Last post of 2010.Meet you all in 2011 
Hey I also made up my mind for my New year resolution :)

Anthropologies Stilled Night Dress

Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

   Wishing everyone a Very Happy New year. May God Bless U

Eat Healthy, Workout Daily!!!

                        Ooops look who is speaking about staying fit...

A girl who just loves eating spicy,cheesy food and lazy enough to do workouts.

I'm a type of girl who lives just for eating and shopping,nothing fascinated me more.But today I realized it was getting difficult to fit into my clothes... Its high time to think about fitness and workouts. 

And hence today I made my mind and took a New Year resolution. 

                                        "Eat Healthy, Workout Daily!!!"

I've never been a breakfast person and I usually eat lunch on the run and gained 10 pounds during the past few months. I don't like Milk,egg or in that case any good protein food. And 1 Day I fell sick. And my reports said I'm Vitamin Deficient... I had less or to that case No Vitamin D and B12 which caused joint pains,dry skin,stressed nights and what not. I'm daily living on Medicines to gain my proteins but never realized the diet also plays a vital role.

My Daily Diet was

till 12noon - No food

12:30pm  lunch mostly rice with some spiced side dish

7:30pm    Dinner mostly Indian

In between lots of Candy's, Chocolates and as the Queen of Lazyness no exercise 

This daily diet would never give me any Vitamins or proteins and I'm Sick of taking medicines and so decided upon my  Diet Do-Over

Diet Do-Over

Breakfast- Split as 2 mini meals

7:30am  Large glass of milk and a Fruit

8:30am-9:30am workouts (Gym/Yoga/Skipping...)

10am - Toast/Oats 

12pm   Salad

12:30pm Lunch, No rice. Includes 2 roti's and lots of side dish( Side dish steamed cooked mostly)     

4:00pm- 6:00pm Soy Milk / Butter Milk and a fruit.

7:00pm Dinner Dhalia...Recipe

If hungry before bed eat fruits or veggy's....

Most Importantly taking minimum 10 glasses of water daily..

I would start up with my diet do-over from Jan1st 2011. The only motto I have now is reduce the weight I gained and stay healthy. 

Any one joining me ???

Ginger Bread House

Its Christmas Eve. I wanted to celebrate with something special. So planned to bake Ginger Bread house from scratch. I started this 2 days before and finally done :). Feels so happy to see the house.

Royal Icing

1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon Lemon

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. 

Ingredients for Cookie Dough

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour

Method

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more.

2. Meanwhile using the wax paper make the house patterns. It requires 2 Front Panels, 2 Side panels and 2 Roofs. Also cut the Ginger Bread man pattern

3. Using the Rolling pin roll the dough, place the wax paper patterns on the dough and run knife gently to get the desired shape and transfer them to baking sheet

4.Preheat the oven to 375'F and Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

The toughest  time was to assemble the house.

5. Prepare the base initially. I used White Square Dinner plate as Base to my house
6. Time to place the side panel first, Pipe the Royal icing on the plate as long as the side panel and then place the side panel and give it a support. I used Coke tins as support. In a similar fashion place the f ront panels and the other side panel. Lastly the roof. 
Be careful don't break your panels as I did. I broke one of the side panels :)
7. I left the house with all supports over night and then next day decorated the house with some candy and Ginger Man.
It was real fun making this Ginger Bread house. 
My nieces had fun time too.
Special Thanks to Kavya for the recipe.
I'm sharing this recipe with
myeasytocookrecipes
asankhana

Wishing All a Merry Christmas 

Lovely Weekend

Its Holiday season...Season full of party's. This weekend was so wonderful, had so many party's to attend. The best things about these party's is getting ready with colorful clothes and food of-course...I finally got a break from cooking for 2 days...
Its quite a time I attended series of party's. 
Coming to the outfit, to one of the party's I wore Muse Purple dress with a Tadashi Shoji Black Stole/Scarf. I got this stole from Nordstrom, its stretchable a bit and very comfort. The stylist taught me few ways to take it on dress and loved it totally. With this outfit I wore like a short hand cardigan, and the ends tied like a bow at the back...I forgot to take the picture of the bow :(

Last invite of the weekend was from a good friend of mine to attend a Christmas party at his church. This is first time ever I was attending a Christmas party @ church. It was so much fun. coming to my outfit I was not sure about the outfit for church but wanted 2 wear in Red as its X'mas time... So was time for my Cashmere cardigan with Derek heart floral knit top and Levis Jeans

I remembered a Quote
" Live for today, Plan for tomorrow and Party Tonight!!!"
Hasta la Vista...

Sugar Cookies

Sugar Cookies are sweet cookies that is primarily made during the Christmas season.
Bake!!! Decorate!!! Celebrate!!!


Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour 
1tsp Baking Powder
1/4tsp Salt
1cup Sugar
1/2 cup / 1 Stick butter
2 Large eggs
2tsp Vanilla extract
Method:
1. In a bowl Mix flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Take another bowl and beat sugar and butter adding 1 egg at a time.
3. Add vanilla extract and beat in the flour mixture too.
4. Divide the dough in to 4 equal parts, wrap each piece with food wrap and refrigerate for about 30 mins.
5. After 30 mins, use the rolling pin and roll 1 piece dough to 1 to 1.5 inch thick.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 F
6. Using cookie cutter cut the dough to as many cookies desired.
7. Use aluminium foil on the baking tray and move the cookies on to the tray
8. Bake them 10-12 mins or till golden brown
9. Cool Decorate and Serve


I'm sharing this recipe to EasytoCookRecipes for the Christmas Event

Winter Garden

Did any one see the blossoming winter wonderland any time? 

Oh yes winter, where there are no leaves on trees and yes I meant Blossom too...

Today I was very fortunate to see this amazing beauty and had no words. A garden full of lights. Its Christmas time and one can see Christmas lights and decorations every where but, this garden with lights was very special. All trees in the garden were blushing with happiness in this winter. 

Kudos to the garden team who has helped in such a fantastic show. 

These lights were arranged in a theme like water fall, swimming pool, garden and what not. All most all trees in the garden were decorated.

There were Alligators, Turtles, Rabbits too in this garden

It was raining whole of day and we were in fix to go or not, but we made our mind to visit this place. God's grace there was no rain but was damn freezing. 

Sharing the website details GardenDlights

Coming to my outfit I wore Nicole Miller Red Crush Velvet Ruffle dress with my Guess Jacket. I love this Jacket a lot, this was my first purchase @ US @ Nordstrom
Mistake I did with this outfit was pairing up Black Tights with Black Sandals :(

           

           

Christmas Brownies

Its been sometime I really baked something. Today I went out to a local store here and when I saw all the Christmas cookies/goodies my heart filled with happiness. Soon rushed out of the store came home and decided to bake.
Its Christmas and how can one not bake any...
Brownie, A tasty treat to satisfy our chocolate sweet tooths. This name makes my mouth water.
Make it, Love it and Eat it
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 
  
• Method:
• 1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F. Grease an 8 inch sqaure pan
• 2. Melt 1/2 cup of butter and mix in sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Use hand mixer if you have one. Beat in cocoa powder, flour,salt and baking powder. 
• 3. Spread the batter into prepared baking pan
• 4. Bake in oven for 30-35 mins.
• Note: Do not over cook
• 
  
• If you find this process difficult or feel tired to do from scratch, use Ghirardelli triple chocolate brownie mix and follow the instructions on it to bake
• 
  
• Tip to check if your cake is done:
• one can test a cake by inserting a clean toothpick into the middle of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. If the toothpick comes out with crumbs, or clearly shows wet cake batter, the cake is not finished cooking. Don’t use a knife to test the cake as this can deflate a cake.

Rainy Day And An Umbrella In hand

I live in a place where it rains most of time. However this rain never made us to sit at home. Was a wonderful day with family get together and pleasant walk in the evening. This was the first time I had an Umbrella in my hand. Coming to my outfit I wore my Mom's favorite Tunic today, I got this in my recent trip to India. This is my first yellow in the closet. 

The best thing about walk with my husband is his photography. I love the way he clicks them.

Tunic: India

Leggings: Kohl's

Kische Lace open Cardigan

Sandals: India

Chain/Ear Tops : Macy's

I love Black

I don’t consider myself the most fashion-obsessed person. I browse trends and styles from time to time, but I don’t feel obliged to follow them. 

I think what we chose to wear makes a big difference, whether we realize it or not.

And now thru this blog I would try to bring more fashion in me.

Today I had a Party to attend. After a week of flu sickness, I wanted to look brighter and smarter. After running through my closet I came up with this outfit. It was too cold outside so had to wear tights to be sickness free

WhiteTop : Old Navy

Black Top: Levis

Skirt: Old Navy

Boots: Nicole

Bangle: Macy’s

Tights: Target

Tweet Tweet Reel People

We are so star struck by celebrities[Reel People] that we sometimes forget that they are real people. They are real people right??? And celebrities always tend to forget that we are the one who made them. Did we not ???

We are the soul creators of the celebrities. NO DOUBT. It's the public who decides the fate of the reel person, if person has impressed the viewer; he becomes celebrity else he is one among us.

But, would these celebrities give the same respect to the public.

I have been using twitter for sometime now and all I follow are celebrities. Some of their tweets are funny, some are informative and some are just the causal tweets.I replied to few of the tweets and never received any reply from them. Few of my friends also shared the same opinion, and few are Like I don't care for their tweets, I tweet because I'm a normal person.

And that made me think 1001 times if the celebrities are Real people, Of-course NOT was all I concluded, if they were they would have replied to the tweets (sounds kiddish). They are more famous than the real Normal people. The real people do not get feted by the press,mobbed by groupies or excoriated from the pulpit and for sure they can never be one among us.

My friend quoted this one day...
“Real people use face book and Reel people use Twitter!!!”
And I feel its very true. Twitter has less tweets from real world and more tweets from reel world.

I spoke to few people who always think this way. Reel people do the way the public wants from them. They act they change all according to what we expect from them which indeed made me very strong enough in my thinking.

With all the mixed feelings I still respect the celebrities, just wish them to be good to the public and respect there feelings and thoughts too